The $9.5 million grant funding is a critical step in enabling a world class plastic recycling plant to be constructed in WA for the processing of locally collected HDPE, PET, LDPE and PP into food grade polymers for use back in plastic packaging.

The plant would trade as Circular Plastics Australia (WA) and form the second facility under the collaboration between Pact and Cleanaway which was established last year. The initial venture, the country’s largest PET recycling facility, is currently under construction in Albury and is expected to be operational later this year.

The proposed plant in WA will see over 17,000 tons of kerbside plastic waste processed into nearly 14,000 tons of resin and polymer flake which will be used to make packaging for food, household and industrial products.

Pact CEO Sanjay Dayal said “We want to sincerely thank Minister Ley and the Federal Government for the establishment of the Recycling Modernisation Fund. They have shown great support and leadership by enabling the creation of world class infrastructure to manage the local processing of Australia’s waste.

I would also like to thank Minister Dawson and the WA Government for their support towards this project. We are proud to be given the opportunity to build this facility in WA and offer much needed employment as areas our economy rebounds from the impacts of Covid 19”. It is expected that the facility would create over 50 new jobs in the area.

Cleanaway CEO and Managing Director Vik Bansal said “I congratulate the McGowan Government for the vision shown by implementing their container return scheme where consumers can return clean and high quality sourced-separated plastic to be locally recycled. This new facility for plastic will recycle the containers collected through the container return scheme and Cleanaway’s new Material Recovery Facility, creating a local circular economy in WA.”

“We’re proud that Cleanaway’s Footprint 2025 strategy has reached a point where we’re not only providing the right infrastructure for resource recovery but extending the value chain to ensure that material is optimised for recycling into new products.” said Mr Bansal.

The proposal is for the facility to be operational in the first half of 2022.

*The funding remains conditional upon the completion of financial due diligence and entry into formal funding agreements.